Nearly as Much
by headcanon.master
Summary: Wilbur finds his dad cheating on his mom. His mom tells him who it is... Because she's known all along. / Timecest / Wilbur/Lewis


Wilbur couldn't believe this. It was a complete betrayal of his mother.

He'd just seen his father, kissing some guy with dark hair, in the laboratory. He hadn't gotten a good look at the guy's face, but he knew what he saw.

Wilbur ran all the way to his mom's music room as soon as he saw it, not worrying if his father or the guy had noticed that he'd seen. He had to tell her.

"Mom! Mom! I have to tell you something!" he called out over the frogs' music. Franny signalled the frogs to stop, and turned to face her son.

"What's wrong?"

Wilbur swallowed thickly. "I saw Dad kissing some... Some guy in the lab."

Franny blinked, and she smiled sadly. "Oh."

"Oh?!" Wilbur cried out. "That's all you can say?!"

"Wilbur-"

"He's _cheating_ on you, Mom! How can you just say 'oh'?!"

"Wilbur-"

"I can't believe he'd do this-"

"Wilbur!"

He fell silent.

"Wilbur, I've known for a long time that this was happening. I've known since before I was even properly _with_ your father."

Wilbur blinked. How could she...?

"Who... Who was the guy, Mom? Do you know?"

Franny smiled bitterly. "It's you, Wilbur."

He felt ice run through his veins, and suddenly he had the inexplicable urge to _throw up_.

"You... Th-that's a joke, right?"

Franny shook her head, and kneeled down to be eye-level with her son. "I'm giving you permission to go into the past," she said. "One day, on one of your visits, you'll find that you've fallen in love with Lewis. You'll kiss him. He'll... He'll kiss back."

She closed her eyes. "That's... That's all I'm able to tell you. But trust me. He returns your feelings."

Wilbur wanted to crawl into a hole and _die_.

"You can only be with him until he's seventeen, and you're eighteen. After that, you have to wait until he's twenty-five, and you're twenty-six. That's when you'll be born. When that happens, you can be back with him... And I promise you, I'll be okay with it."

"Mom... D-don't you..." He swallowed thickly. "Don't you hate me?"

Franny didn't respond. That was answer enough. She stood properly after a long moment of silence. "Run along, now. You can go visit Lewis right now if you want."

He wanted to get away from Franny. He felt that he was just causing her pain by being around her.

* * *

It was just like she said. Eventually, Wilbur, as sickening as he found it, was falling in love with Lewis.

And when he realized it, he remembered what his mother said about... Kissing him. He swallowed nervously.

"Hey, Lewis?" he called, getting his attention from where he was working on another invention at his desk.

"Yeah, Wilbur?"

"Come over here for a sec."

Lewis looked at where Wilbur was, lounging on the bed. Rolling his eyes, Lewis stood and walked over to him. "What is-"

Wilbur yanked on Lewis's arm, pulling him down on the bed on top of him. Wilbur pressed a firm kiss to Lewis's lips-

And Lewis, after a moment of shock, kissed back. Just like Franny had said.

Then he heard a gasp, heard something fall, and he pulled back to see who it was.

There she was. The young version of his mother, staring at them with widened eyes, and a box of heart-shaped chocolates scattered all over the ground.

"I... I didn't... Y-your mom, um... I should..."

Franny ran. "I'll take care of it," Wilbur said, stopping Lewis from going. Despite the skeptical look on his friend/father/boyfriend(?)'s face, Wilbur ran after Franny.

He managed to catch her before she ran off of the lawn, grabbing her by the wrist. She turned, and was obviously displeased when he wasn't Lewis.

"I have a lot to explain to you," Wilbur said, "so can you please listen?"

Warily, Franny nodded. They sat on the ground.

"Okay, so... I'm kind of your son from the future. Let's start with that."

"Prove it!"

Wilbur sighed. He pulled out the keys, and pressed the button. The time machine was suddenly visible next to them. Franny's jaw dropped. "That would be the time machine I used to get here," he said smugly.

"G-g-g... Go on..."

"I'm also his son," Wilbur said, pointing back at the building to refer to Lewis.

"You were just... Kissing him. You were..."

"Yeah," Wilbur said, wincing. "Not exactly my proudest moment."

"Why should I have you, huh? If you're just gonna go and-"

"Because if you don't, then I won't exist, therefore I will never have kissed him, and you won't have a reason to not have me, therefore causing a time paradox."

Wow. He couldn't believe he'd actually said all of that... And it actually made sense!

It seemed that Franny thought it did too.

"L-listen," Wilbur said, "I'm in love with him, but I'm not in love with my dad. It's complicated. Basically, I'll only be with Lewis until he's seventeen, then you can have him all to yourself until I'm born."

"I'm not negotiating with my future son over who gets to be with my future husband!" Franny said.

"Again, time paradox? This isn't me negotiating, this is me telling you what's going to happen."

Franny pouted. "But... But..."

"I know. I'm... I'm sorry."

Franny curled in on herself. "In the future... There's probably a part of your mom that hates you a little bit," she mumbled. "Because I hate you a lot right now."

Wilbur swallowed thickly. "I... I know. And I deserve it."

Franny sniffled, wiping at tears in her eyes.

Wilbur, not knowing what to do, stood up and climbed into his time machine. He'd done enough damage.

He zoomed into the sky, and honked as he wrote out a message. Franny looked up.

I'M SORRY MOM was written across the sky, just before Wilbur went into the future.

* * *

"I didn't mean it, Wilbur," his mom said as soon as he got back.

Wilbur looked at her, a sad smile on his lips. "Yeah, you did. And... I know you still do."

Franny faltered. "O-okay," she said, "m-maybe I do, but... I don't hate you nearly as much as I love you. Just... Just like your dad doesn't love me nearly as much as he loves you."

Wilbur sighed. "I... I know. And I'm sorry."

It was all he could say.


End file.
